Platform-operated garage-door latch



Dec. 13, 1927. 1,652,574

M. MAT'rsoN PLATFORM OPElEATED GARAGE DOOR LATCH Filed April 24. 1926 2 sums-snee: 1

Dec. 13, 1927. 1,652,574

M. MAT-rsoN PLATFORM OPERATED GARAGE DOOR LATCH Filed April 24. 1926 2 Sheets-Shea?, 2

W 551g Z/ (L gmnnlo@ fifi Nals 077 Patented Dec. 13, 1927.

UNITED STATES MATT MATTSON', 0F HIBBING, -MINNESOTA.

PLATFORM-OPERATED GARAGE-DOOR LATCH.

Application led April 24, 17926. Serial No. 104,416.

This invention relates to doors and particularly to garage doors having means whereby the door may be opened automatically by the arrival of a machine at a predetermined .point in front of the door.

A further object is to provide means dis- Y posed upon the inside ofthe door whereby the leaves of the door may be closed and latched.

Still a. further object is to provide means capable of operation from lthe interior of the garage whereby toY prevent the unlatching of the doors or leaves and the opening of the doors from outside.

Other objects have to dorwitli the details of construction and arrangement of parts as will appear more fully hereinafter.

Y Myinvention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings-wherein: y

Figure 1 is an elevation of the door frame and doors of the garage looking from inside the garage;

Fig. 2 is va section on the line 2*-2 of Figure lQa-nd illustrating in-top plan View the actuating device which is disposed exteriorly of the door;

Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional view through the actuating devices on the line 3 3 of Figure 2;

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary vertical section through the upper portion of the doorway with the door open; f

Fig. 5 is a section on the line 5-5 of Figure 4; Y e r Fig. 6 is a side elevation of. the lever by which the latches holding t-he doors closed are released;

Fi 7 isa top plan view of the lever;

Fig. 8 is a. section on the line 8-8 of Figure 6;

Fig. 9 is a section on the same line as VFigure 8, but showing the two halves of th lever disconnected; and l Fig. 10 is a diagrammatic view showing the flexible connections from the latch releasing lever to the latches.

Referring to these drawings 10 designates a door frame of any suitable or usual construction and 11 the rtwo doors hinged to said'frame by hinges 12, the overlapping edges of the doors being rabbeted at 13 as shown in Figure 2. Mounted in U-shaped brackets 14 upon the upper outer corner of each door is a spring actuated latch 15 upwardly projected by means of a 'spring 16 and adapted to engage in keepers 17 mounted upon the lintel of v the door. Thus, when the doors are closed these latches will engage with the keepers and hold the doors' closed until the latches are released. The doors are swung outward by a system of springs as will be later stated, but I will first describe the means whereby the latches are-withdrawn from engagement with the keepers to permit the doors to be swung outward.

Mounted upon the jamb of the door frame and illustrated as mounted 'u n the right hand jamb is a lever 18, (see igures 6 and 7) which is pivoted or hingedl to the jamb of the door frame for vertical oscillation.

This lever is formed in two sections, as shown i in Figure. 8, one of these sections being designated a and the other b. Vith the section b is engaged a link 19 and fromthisflink vextends a chain 20 extending downward and around a pulley 21, then extending forward through a tube 22 to the actuating device which is disposed at'any desired point in front of the door opening. This actuating device comprises a base having the form of a. box or rectangular casing rand designated 23. Mounted within `this casing against the rear wall thereof, is a pulley 24 and a chain 20 passes upward and over this pulley. Supported by springs 25 are the two longitudlnally extending metal strips or irons 26, against the lower faces of which the springs 25 bear, and connecti vthese strips is a transverse strip 27 to which the chain 20'is connected by means of a bolt or rivet 28.

Springs 25 surround vertical bolts 29 and the heads of these bolts engage the lower angularly bent ends of the transversely extending strips 30, which strips support the upper section 31 of the casing, this section having preferably downwardly extending side walls having telescopic engagement with the side walls of the casing 23. This casing is disposed so that the upper section 31 is slightly above the level of the ground or roadway and upon a depression of this upper section of the casing, as by the weight of an automobile acting through a wheel to depress the section, the chain 20 willbe tightened, drawing downward on the lever 18.

Connected to each latch is a chain 32 which, as illustrated diagrammatically in Figure 10, extends downward from :the bolt sibly immediately beneath the latch bolt 15.

The chain then extends upward and outward toward the inner corner of the corresponding door and over a pulley 34 mountedupon the same time, the chain 32 of one latch after it'passes over the pulley 36, as illustrated l particularly well in Figure 10, extends entirely across the doorway and connects with the chain 32 from the other'latch and this chain 32 and the last named chain 32 passes over thepulley 36 and downward to a link 37 which connects with the section a of the lever 18. Thus, it will be plain'that when this lever is depressed by the depression o't the treadle constituted by the member 31,

'both latch bolts will be drawn from their keepers vand the' doors will swing outward under the action of the spring system now to 'be'y described.

il It will be understood that the springs are preferably of suchweight that it will require about 200 pounds pressurel to, depress the treadle 31 and' cause the opening of the doors.' This isin'order to 'prevent children or' persons accidentally'stepping'upon the "treadle from releasing the doors. a

Each door is operated by two coacting pairs of spring actuated arms. To this end "brackets 38,y as 'shown in Figure 4, are

mounted upon the'lintel ot the door traine and extend downward and rearward therefrom andy then inward. Passing through this outwardly bowed' portion 39 of each portion is a pivot bolt 40 and mounted upon 3 this pivot bolt are the pair ot arms 41, these sleeves 42 through which bolts pass.

arms being connected at intervals byV means of bolts and Aspacers 42. Surrounding the bolt 40 is a coiled expansion spring 43 which is engaged at one end with thebracket 39 and at the other end with one of the spacing sleeves 42 ot the pair ot arms 41 and acts to urge these arms to a Jforwardly projecting position. f I Mounted upon'the inner face of each door is a bracket 44 through which passes a bolt 45 "and pivotally mounted upon this bolt for swinging movement are the somewhat angular arms 46, there'being a pair oit these arms 46 spaced from each other by means ot spacing These arms are pivoted to the extremities oi the arms 4-1 by a bolt 48. Surrounding the bolt 45 is a coiled spring 49 which at one end, is engaged with the bracket 44 and atl the other end with the arms 46 and acts to urge the arms 46 into an approximately aligned relatioiiwith the arms 41 and surrounding'the bolt 48 is a spring 50 which, Vat one end, engages with the arms 41 and at the other end with the arms 46 and also acts to shift these arms toward'an aligned position. The extremities of the arms 46 extend beyond the' bolts-48 and each. arm is cut away to provide a projecting tooth 47 which, when the arms are in the'position shown in Figure 5, will abut against one ot the bolts and spacing sleeves oli' -thearms 41,` thus stopping the relative rotation ot thesearms 41 and 46. when these arms have reached the position shown in Figure 5. p

It will be seen that withthis construction when the bolts v15v are withdrawn theetliree springs which are operativelyengaged with the two pairs ogtarms on Veach door, act to swing the door to an open position at right angles to the face of theidoor trame Vandto a position only limited by the engagement of the stop lugs-or teeth 47 withl the labutting spacing sleeve. It will likewise be ynoted that when the doors open `under the action of vthe'spring systems, no strain-is put upon the chains V2li-becausethebolts 34e-'are disposed at the inner corners ot the doors and change their position very slightly with reiterence to the pulleys 35 and 36, and thus the opening oit the doors does not Vaffect the lever 18 in any manner. a j

For the purpose ot closing the doors 1 vmount upon each door beneathl the'path ot movement ol the spring actuated arms and adjacent the inside margins-ot the doors a bracket 52 which, as illustrated linFignre 3, projects outward from the door to provide an arm spacedirom the inside tace'ot the door, to which arm a chain 53 is connected which extends to 4a bell'crank lever 54. The chain 'from the right'hand door passes between the pulleys 55 and 56. The chain from Vthe bracket 52 'on theV left handV doorpasses around the pulley .57, then up and overV two aligned pulleys 58 and then downandbetween the pulleys 55 and 56 and Vto the lever 54. Thus, when this lever 54is actuated the doors it they are open, will bet'closed from inside the garage. i l The purpose of forming the lever 18 in 'two sections as illustrated in l Fi gures 6 to 10,

is'to provide means whereby the owner of the garage may at anytime prevent the release of the bolts 15 by a machinel running over the treadle 31. Normally the'two sections of the lever 18 are held in engagement with each other .by anut 59 which has screwthreaded engagement with the shank 18 of the lever. By turning this nut 59 untilit is at the end ot the section b the section a which is less \inV length than the section b, will be released from its engagement with the section b and `then, any downward pull exerted on thechain or cable 2O will merely 'act topull ldown on the section b' and. the

section@ will, ot course,fn ot'.be affected.

The operation of this device has been clearly indicated in the foregoing description and, therefore, it is not believed necessary to recapitulate this operation but it will be seen that I have provided a garage door which may be shut from the outside and locked, wh1ch may be unlocked by the arrival of a machine at a predetermined point in front of the door, in which the doors Will be drawn open automatically by the unlatching of the doors and in which the doors may be closed from the inside and if desired, the bolt unlatching means be rendered inoperative.

l/Vhile I have illustrated certain details of construction and arrangement of parts which I believe to be particularly effective I do not wish to be limited thereto as man minor changes might be made therein wit out departing from the spirit of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

I claim 1. A door casing, a hinged door therefor, a latch holding the door closed, Wheel operable means exterior to the door for causing the retraction of the latch when the means is actuated, a flexible connection extending from said means to the latch, a pivot-ed lever formed in two sections, the sections being normally engaged with each other, and means sliiftable in one direction to disconnect said sections from each other to thereby render the latch operating means inoperative or in the other direction to connect the sections to each other and render the latch operating means operative.

2. A door casing and a hinged door therefor, a latch holding the door closed, Wheel operable means exterior to the door and causing the retraction of the latch when the means is actuated, a member mounted upon the door frame and consisting of two sections normally connected to each other for common movement, a flexible connection f leading from one of said sections to the door latch, guides for said flexible connection, and a second flexible connection leading from the other of said sections to the wheel operated means.

3. A door frame and a hinged door therefor, a latch holding the door closed, a casing disposed exterior to the door, a wheel operable depressible member extending over the top'of said casing, springs within the casing urging said member upward, a flexible connection leading from said member to the inside of the door casing and then leading to the latch, and pulleys mounted u on the door casing for guiding said flexible connection.

4. A door frame, a pair of doors hinged thereto, spring projected latches holding the doors closed, wheel operable means disposed exterior to the door and operatively connected to said latches to cause the retraction thereof when the means is operated, said connection including a member pivotally mounted upon the door frame and formed of two parallel sections, the sections fitting against each other and being exteriorly screw-threaded at their outer ends, the flexible connection leading from the operating means being divided at this point and one being engaged with one of said sections and the other with the other section, and a nut engaging both of said sections and when in one position causing unitary movement of both of said sections and when in another position permitting the sections to move independently of each other.

In testimony whereof I hereunto afix my signature.

MATT MATTsoN. 

